James Wolcott’s right: “it’s wealth that’s required, not scrappy resilience.” So we won’t be reviewing Shine a Light here, because I haven’t yet seen it. In lieu of the requisite Scorcese-mauling, how about a brief Tattoo YouTube for a Friday night, a shambling mess of videos that just percolated up from the series of tubes.

Author: Tom Watson

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4 thoughts on “Shine a Light – Any Light”

I’ve always liked Wolcott, now even more so (and this, after all he’s done for me), when he says “I’m starting to sound like David Denby… and not in a good way.” Hilarious! I always watch for creeping Denby-ism in my film crit. Though I agree with all of it, I wonder if it’s all fair; White’s reviewing the audience as much as the Stones, and I think it’s a little easy – I mean, Boomer Disdain is almost a given in us younger folk these days, and I know I can make the case by heart. White hits the notes, but it all feels a little familiar. I think Wolcott’s more on to it – it’s the self satisfied, mutual handjob nature of the celebrity co-worship (between Scorceses/Clinton/Stones… all you need is Bono to make it complete; or maybe Michael Stipe) and the dated quality of the Stones’ worldview that makes this exercise so… tired. But then, I’ve never completely understood the cult of Mick; I thought the whole white Brit guy who likes black r&b was a bit cliche all along. But it’s music, of course, and I make a lousy music critic. 🙂

Ah, hell, give me the first three Stones albums on scratchy vinyl and I’m happy. I don’t think I’d be able to stand actually going to see these ancient lizard kings perform nowadays though.

I mean, what’s next, are they gonna dig up Edith Piaf’s corpse and shoot her up with adrenaline and stick her on a stage?

On the other hand I wouldn’t mind sitting around someone’s spliffsmoke-filled kitchen listening to Keith jam on an acoustic. Especially if I could go back in time and it was the old pre-dental work Keith.